Something wild and dangerous has been released into the wilderness. It is no wonder, then, that this “wild thing” has raised alarms and dredged up some of our most primal fears.
Wolves, as you know, are fierce predators. If you don’t know someone who has strong feelings about the reintroduction of wolves into Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, then you probably haven’t been paying attention.
But, it isn’t only in the U.S. where the debate about wolves has been heated. In both Scandinavia and in Scotland, folks are debating whether the reintroduction of wolves would be a good thing. Some ecologists there say wolves would help to control the overpopulated elk and deer herds that overgraze on budding trees and plants. Sheepherders and ranchers, not surprisingly, are outraged.
Yet, I want people to think about wolves not in the hysterical tones that some cynical politicians would incite in us. Rather, in this case, consider wolves in terms of their metaphysical meaning.
A certain school of thought teaches us that everything in the outside world is the mirror reflection of what is inside of us. If that were the case, the reintroduction of the wild wolf would signify a curious omen.
In the Seven Drum Religion of the Nez Perce, of course, animal spirits or weyekin bestowed certain powers and gave lessons. In many shamanic traditions, the wolf was considered a teacher.
Yet, I am not Nez Perce and so I don’t pretend to speak for them or their traditions. I am, however, Germanic and Celtic. It so happens that the wolf has long been a symbol for the preeminent Teutonic god, Odin. It has been said that when Christianity was forced upon the peoples of Northern Europe, that the Old Gods went underground and hid in the deepest portions of the psyche, in what Carl Jung called the “collective unconsciousness.” Lionel Snell noted this in his introduction of Freya Aswynn’s book “Leaves of Yggdrasil”: “Another way of saying it is that these ancient gods have been driven down into the collective unconsciousness and abandoned. The effect of doing this is similar to the effect you would get if you drove your cats, dogs and other domestic animals back into the jungle: When you set out to rediscover them several generations later, you find that they have reverted to the wild, grown feral and fierce.”
Psychologically, when you only treat the Christ-like “good” side of the psyche as valid, what you only end up doing is splitting off and repressing large portions of “dark side” of the psyche. These unacknowledged and un-dealt-with “shadows” of the psyche get pushed deeper into the subconscious kingdom, where they gather energy and grow into even more fierce monsters that will eventually surface one way or another.
In the early part of the 20th Century in Central Europe, “wolf sightings” were on the rise, as it appeared that the old Germanic gods had returned from a long absence. Wily politicians, of course, took advantage of the situation. The Nazis discovered that, lo and behold, if you cage a wild wolf and beat it mercilessly, when you release it from its cage a wolf will tear everything and everyone on the landscape to shreds.
But just because a person is interested in the runes, Nietzsche, and the old Teutonic religion doesn’t make one a Nazi. The manipulative and cynical way the Nazis made use of a budding folk revival movement would be like if during the Vietnam era Richard Nixon declared himself to be the supreme embodiment of the hippies. While it might have been politically expedient, it would in no way be credible.
If we truly understood the Western psyche, then we would acknowledge that there is a large amount of repressed material buried within it – namely an entire religion that was overwritten with a foreign overlay. Until people of Northern European descent realize that we are a conquered people – that the Romans could not defeat us militarily so they destroyed our culture and our indigenous religion by imposing Christianity – then we can never even begin to truly be ourselves again.
Just as there are ecologists working to restore the populations of endangered species such as the wolf or the salmon – and thereby restore harmony and balance to nature – there are those working to restore the endangered species of the Western psyche. The challenges the ecologist faces in restoring an ecosystem are not dissimilar to the challenges facing those who seek to reconstruct the old religion, Asatru.
For those who would cling to the status quo, the return of the wolf may be a cause for alarm. After all, the People of the Wolf are wild and ferocious. Yet, in terms of shamanism, the return of the wolf may signify the return of a long-forgotten wise teacher.
And that, my friends, is an omen that bodes well not only for the balance of nature, but for the balance of the Western psyche.